This tutorial offers an in-depth introduction into programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The article starts with an overview of the history and the role PLCs in factory automation. The basic ...

The programmable logic controller (PLC) is a microprocessor-based system that accepts input data from switches and sensors, processes that data by making decisions in accordance with a stored program, ...

Embedded processors handle the rising complexity of automation tasks by employing architectures that are quite different from those of programmable-logic controllers. It is no secret that ...

A Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) is a specialized computing system widely used to control real-time industrial processes and assemblies. The block diagram of a generic PLC is shown in Figure 1.

The quest for better throughput, faster changeover times, and less waste and downtimes has made machine-automation systems more complicated. Besides handling logic or process controls, systems today ...

As part of our research for the February 2011 feature story, “Control Vendors Put More in the Box,” Automation World posed a handful of questions via e-mail to vendors of integrated logic and motion ...

With integrated diagnostics and override functions, PLCs have become easier to use and much less expensive. Before the automotive industry discovered the advantages of programmable logic controllers ...

In most industrial plants, it's not uncommon to have programmable logic controllers (PLCs) from different suppliers, often on the same production line. Each PLC may come with a different communication ...